Incorporating advanced technologies into grassroots sports is less about keeping up with trends and more about fostering an environment that benefits athletes, fans and the broader community, says Meghna Krishna.
Sports fans in the UAE and Saudi Arabia rank among the highest globally in their optimism about AI’s impact on sports, with the 2024 IBM Survey revealing that more than 50% express positive sentiments. This is because AI has become indispensable in transforming the landscape of sports broadcasting and streaming, fundamentally enhancing the quality and engagement of the viewing experience. It has been – and will continue to be – key to meeting the needs of sports fans in the new immersive sports era.
In particular, Generation Z fans today crave a social and interactive sports experience across multiple platforms. This was most recently highlighted in a 2023 survey by Deloitte that showcased that nearly all of this age group use social media to consume sports-related content. As digital natives, creating connections with their favourite athletes on social media is of great importance to their fanhood. Around 80% of Gen Z fans follow a professional athlete online. This then leads them to watch and attend sports events that their favourite athlete is participating in, follow their brands or other athletes they interact with, and buy products they promote.
Fan engagement is also not just reserved for those in the best-known sports and elite positions, but also at the grassroots level. Collegiate athletes are the superstars of tomorrow, and MENA can learn a lot from the importance of grassroots investment.
AI-enabled engagement for athletes from the start
Incorporating advanced technologies in grassroots sports is not just about keeping up with trends, it’s about creating a sustainable and engaging ecosystem that benefits athletes, fans and the broader community. Implementing technologies such as AI and automation in content creation allows sports programmes to offer professional level viewing experiences to fans.
Highlights and real-time replays can make college and university sports more accessible and engaging for a broader audience, including remote fans who cannot attend games in person. When fans feel more connected, they are more likely to participate in events, support teams and athletes, and spread the word, therefore growing the fanbase organically.
AI tools now enable efficient management of large volumes of content, which is crucial for sports programmes often operating with limited resources. By demonstrating a robust and engaged fan base, colleges and universities can also secure additional funding and resources, which can be reinvested into sports programmes to improve facilities, training and overall athlete development. By enhancing the fan experience, efficiently managing content and leveraging social media, sports programmes can achieve significant growth and long-term success.
Proven success in automating systems for sports content
Following a close examination of the global sports broadcasting industry, Al-powered tools today help automate the creation, editing and distribution f game highlights and social media content, ensuring greater flexibility and scalability without additional costs. By utilising automated systems, a small team can handle the spikes involved with large volumes of gameday content, ensuring timely and relevant updates for diverse sports to the waiting audience.
Prior to the adaptation of these tools, this was a time-consuming job. Simultaneously producing and publishing content at scale in real time to uplift the overall engagement rate is a difficult task, particularly for businesses handling a significant number of sports. Aspect ratio, channels, personalisation for contextualisation, device fragmentation – all these factors have to be considered to ensure an intuitive, seamless and low-latency solution for demanding viewers.
Enabling seamless growth in the new era of sports
The ability to establish a seamless workflow that covers the automated generation of highlights packages and more, as well as to then populate active social channels with the content in a timely manner, is at the root of successfully embracing the immersive sports era. These systems are an important part of the overall picture if sports rights holders want to maintain the growth that the democratisation of production has started.
Sport is no longer the exclusive preserve of expensive and large-scale OB operations, but the task of clipping and repurposing content for multiple platforms has acted as a brake on the aspirations of many rights holders to maximise the value of their content. AI and automating these processes are going to play a critical part in moving forward. This technology is allowing rights holders at all levels, from collegiate conferences to lower-tier federations and on to national broadcasters, to ensure their content engages audiences quickly and cost-effectively wherever they might be and on whatever device they are watching. By adopting automated systems, sports organisations in the MENA region can scale their content production with small teams, handling the large volumes of content that come with multiple sporting events across diverse sports.
Overall, MENA broadcasters and sports bodies can enhance viewer engagement by leveraging AI to optimise content for different social media platforms, ensuring the content is more engaging and suited to the preferences of a variety of audience demographics. By integrating analytics into content distribution strategies, MENA sports organisations can monitor and improve viewership, engagement and overall content performance, leading to better-targeted campaigns and audience growth.
Meghna Krishna is Group Chief Revenue Officer at Magnifi.
